I think the entire idea of a “replacement” for Steve Jobs is misguided. Let’s just all admit that Jobs is a unique sort of franchise player. He does a lot of things really well. If he were to reduce his role at Apple for whatever reason — I like to imagine that someday he’ll just buy a tropical island like a James Bond villain and retire — he will not be replaced by any one person, but by different people in different roles. Tim Cook appears to be the operations and management guy, the adult supervision. Jonathan Ive has a similar design taste to Jobs. Phil Schiller actually does a pretty good job as a demo guy — I think most tech companies would love having Phil Schiller be their keynote guy. Jonathan Ive is a brilliant designer — I don’t think he needs to be a CEO or good with a clicker on stage in front of thousands of people.

Couldn’t agree more. There is no reason why the CEO has to be Chief Showman.